By @edent · failure meta · 1,100 words · read ~610 times.
The two big memes of our entrepreneurial age are Go big, or go home! And Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. Samuel Beckett Well, I've failed and now I'm heading home. Last year I applied for a place on a Master's programme at the Oxford Internet Institute. I was […]
Continue reading →By @edent · bugs facebook security unicode url · 350 words · read ~739 times.
Facebook rewrite URLs with Unicode in the path - this is not best practice and could be dangerous. It is possible to create a URL like http://bit.ly/😀 - the Unicode characters are valid in the path. The URL Encoded representation is : bit.ly/%F0%9F%98%80 Facebook mangles these URLs in such a way that it might be […]
Continue reading →By @edent · urls web · 1 comment · 1,150 words · read ~1,765 times.
I have a (very minor and polite) disagreement with Matt Gemmel's argument against dates in URLs. Before I start, let me be very clear; your blog = your rules. If you want to write your URLs as a series of Emoji or in Klingon - go right ahead. There really is no such thing as […]
Continue reading →By @edent · FoI ODcamp Open Data · 1 comment · 550 words · read ~258 times.
One of the sessions I lead at Open Data Camp was "Open Data Horror Stories" - we talked about some of the disasters we've had when requesting or using Open Data. This lead on to a session ran by Gaia Marcus on how to create the "perfect" FOI request. This is not an exhaustive guide […]
Continue reading →By @edent · HailHydra ODcamp Open Data · 4 comments · 1,200 words · read ~646 times.
(Inspired by a session at Open Data Camp called "Open Data Horror Stories") I was having an argument spirited discussion with my friend John the other day. He was sympathising with Tony Blair's regrets over the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act. Apparently, FOI requests put too great a strain on departments and government […]
Continue reading →By @edent · android mobile motorola nexus · 400 words · read ~798 times.
The Motorola built Nexus 6 is just about the worst Android handset I've owned. The USB port is upside down, the screen is smeary at low light, the back is so slippery it spins wildly on any flat surface, the battery is average at best, and the curve of the back makes impossible to type […]
Continue reading →By @edent · api developers twitter · 1 comment · 900 words · read ~8,191 times.
Twitter now allows people to upload videos directly to the micro-blogging platform. It's an attempt to bypass 3rd party sites like YouTube (owned by Google) and Instagram (owned by Facebook). In an uncharacteristic display of openness, Twitter's API allows developers to get direct access to video. This is a quick blog post to explain how […]
Continue reading →By @edent · Apple iphone oxict4d · 3 comments · 1,200 words · read ~678 times.
Who made your iPhone? Sure, the back of the box says "Designed in California" - but who were the men and women who assembled your phone? How well are they treated? Are they paid well? Are they trapped in a living hell where many of them feel the only way out is suicide? Christoph Lutz@lutzid"achieve […]
Continue reading →By @edent · coding HTML · 2 comments · 200 words · read ~10,547 times.
Just a couple of silly experiments on a Sunday afternoon. I think it's beautiful to overly animated GIFs on top of one another. If the topmost GIF has a transparent background it becomes hypnotic to see the synchronisity which appears to develop - akin to listening to Dark Side of the Moon while the Wizard […]
Continue reading →By @edent · data oii oxfam oxford oxict4d · 1 comment · 1,400 words · read ~271 times.
Yesterday I attended an OII talk on the Ethical Treatment of Data in New Digital Landscapes. Amy O'Donnell from Oxfam lead a discussion about how the charity is seeking to improve the way that Aid Agencies deal with the data they collect. Oxfam collects data for many different reasons - sometimes it is incidental (for […]
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